Woman Makes Terrible Mistake After Boarding Plane, Fears Has To Cancel Trip

A video of a passenger’s unexpected mistake that left her having to nearly cancel her flight has gone viral on TikTok.
Megan Homme, a 28-year-old travel content creator based in Chicago, Illinois, found herself in a predicament after she heard “something drop” in her seat shortly after boarding her business class United flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Narita International Airport (NRT) in Tokyo, the Japanese capital.
Homme captured the scene of the incident in a video posted on her TikTok account @meganhomme. The clip has amassed more than 5.2 million views since it was shared on August 28.
Homme told Newsweek: “My passport was sitting on the side table and fell in a crevice between the side table and the armrest in a spot that was too small to reach a hand into. I happened to be filming when my passport fell because I create travel content for a living.”
The footage shows airline staff standing near the seat trying to grab the passport, which was eventually retrieved with their help, the passenger said.
Noting that she previously ran social-media channels for a U.S. airline, Homme said: “I travel several times a month, so mistakes are bound to happen.”
Air travel continues to see strong growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
An August report by the International Air Transport Association (lATA) said that total passenger demand in July was up 8 percent, compared with the same month in 2023.
Willie Walsh, the IATA’s director general, said in the report: “July was another positive month. In fact, passenger demand hit an all-time high for the industry and in all regions except Africa, despite significant disruption caused by the CrowdStrike IT outage.”
Travel is set to reach record highs this year, with global tourism spending expected to hit U.S. $2 trillion, per a December 2023 report by Euromonitor International, the market research firm.
A message overlaid on the viral TikTok video reads: “The moment you hear something drop and realize your passport just got swallowed by your airplane seat and might cancel your entire trip.”
The video shows Homme sitting in a plane seat looking at a sheet of paper before she is later shown peering down into the seat crevice.
The passenger told Newsweek: “I was one of the first to board the flight, and it happened pretty immediately when I sat down, so there were still about 30 minutes of boarding time left before takeoff.”
According to the poster, the flight attendants spent a few minutes trying to “retrieve it with chopsticks” before maintenance workers were called on board. The workers disassembled a part of the seat to get the passport out.
Homme said: “All in all, it probably took about 25 minutes, so the flight wasn’t delayed, but it was cutting it close. I thought I might have to get off the flight if they couldn’t retrieve it, as I wouldn’t be allowed into Japan without a passport.
“I used to work at an airline, and the business-class seats are notorious for swallowing phones, AirPods,” she said, adding that “maintenance [workers on the United flight] was happy to help.”
The passport incident in the viral video has shocked users on TikTok.
“Putting your passport anywhere but in your handbag that’s close to you at all times is crazy,” posted @sarabeaarr.
AngelaDawn commented: “I always put mine away the second I am done showing it at the gate, cause I’m so scared of something like this happening.”
“Omg [oh my God] new fear unlocked,” said lly_317 and oki1392 wrote: “My worst fear.”
User @diary.andrea posted, “would literally have cried,” and Brent Timm Travel added: “A true nightmare!”
Ashleymarie commented, “imagine you hadn’t noticed,” and @sarahlwalden simply wrote: “omg the stress.”
Newsweek has contacted United for comment via email.
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